Growing up as a little kid, DeAndre Scott watched his father direct the Wilson High School basketball program.
Now, it’s his turn.
The 33-year-old Scott leaves a successful Myrtle Beach program, where he led the Seahawks to the 2008 Class 3A title, and comes back to the high school where he played and where his dad, Jeffery, coached from 1973-85.
“As disappointing as it was to leave Myrtle Beach, it was really an easy decision,” DeAndre Scott said Friday. “Wilson afforded me the opportunity to come home and be a part of the community that helped raise me.”
DeAndre said he talked with his father when the job came open following Bob Wilson’s resignation after four seasons.
And Jeffery Scott, a teacher and football coach at Williams Middle School, was behind his son all the way.
“This was something he really wanted to be a part of,” Jeffery said.
Jeffery described his son as a “gym rat” growing up and remembers DeAndre and his brother playing basketball for hours in the backyard.
But Jeffery said his son “just didn’t have the basketball skills”, something DeAndre didn’t disagree with.
“Bench,” DeAndre joked what position he played in high school.
After graduating from Wilson, DeAndre went to South Carolina to become a doctor but he switched his major to education after his sophomore year.
Scott landed a teaching job at Chester and became the boys varsity assistant in 1999. He took over the head coaching job two years later.
In his five years as head coach, Scott coached USC standout Devan Downey and led Chester to the Class 3A upper state title game in 2004, where the Cyclones lost to J.L. Mann.
Scott landed the Myrtle Beach job in 2006 and won a state championship a year later. This season, the Seahawks went 17-10, losing to Battery Creek in the third round of the playoffs.
“Myrtle Beach was a good place to work and I enjoyed my time there,” said DeAndre, who went 56-27 in three seasons with the Seahawks.
Scott, who will meet with his players Monday, has watched film of Tigers and said he likes what he has seen. He said he plans to bring his up-tempo offense and pressing man-to-man defense to his alma mater.
One of his biggest challenges will be to replace the team’s top two scorers, UNC Pembroke signee Shahmel Brackett and Alan Michael Thompson.
Scott also will have to deal with the expectations of the program, a perennial contender for region titles, and the pressures of being a hometown guy running the show.
“I’m not the basketball savior and not guaranteeing three or four state titles,” he said. “I’m just going to push them and bring out their best.
“I’m a quick study and hopefully they can be too so we can do some good things.”
And that’s something that will make his father proud.
“I know he is going to do a good job and I am sure he will be successful,” Jeffery said. “His main thing is he loves game of basketball and loves those kids.”
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